Hello everyone. This is my first post ever, i've been climbing about two years.....im a noob....be nice... I bought a used rack from a guide over a year ago and with it came a bunch of aliens. I heard from several people, some experienced, some not, some old time guides that aliens are crap and they break. I also heard from other people that they are great and very versatile. I personally like them a lot but find myself not wanting to trust them because other people have told me they are known to break Anyone have any other stories or better knowledge about them? Any advice? thanks for the info

aliens are the shit(period). i have whipped on them multitudinous times over my 12 years of climbing with fantastic results. if placed well, they hold, end of story.

Make sure that they are stamped "tensile tested." If they are not, send them to CCH to be tested(I believe its free).

The bottom line is that it comes down to whether or not you trust them. It's a personal decision.

I feel that they have a more questionable record than other cams, but that they are still reasonably reliable and place better than anything in certain situations. Flip through the miles of posts on this subject and draw your own conclusions.

Evan

pacoarg9, it's going to be a long road to find and read all of the various threads out there on Aliens. Start on rockclimbing.com and search. I have some bootied Aliens myself, so I of course use these two units. I tried to find the range of dates that they had production quality problems.

They had two known problems. One batch had not been cooled properly after brazing, so the wires would pull out of the braze. I forget what the second problem was, but again the heads popped off. If your units pre-date these problems, you might be OK. Sending the units to CCH for pull testing proves nothing, so don't bother with that.

In the end, it's all going to boil down to it being a matter of faith pretty much.

Look, aliens are great, not because of any testing qc issue; but because climbing with them is like sex with stone, sure there are risks; but then again, I have my needs

never met anyone who actually broke an alien because of a factory problem. maybe im bias. to me, cch aliens are the best small camming units available (period).

Just remember, using aliens is a sin.

Everytime you plug yours into a crack, a kitten takes a dirt nap with Baby Jesus

They're great...until you take a fall and the head pops off and nearly kills you. Don't ask how I know this.

Supra

Listen to Mark.

There has been quality control issues over the years, most notably after 2001. They do have a great basic design that makes them useful when other cams are not. Thus many people love this aspect about them.

Can you get any information from the person you bought them from about the history of the cams? I would be very cautious with them until you know more about them. What is the manufacturing date?

I have two from 1997, and they work great. However, I will not buy any more because of the past issues.

I like them, but I won't buy more due to their quality control issues.

pacoarg9,

There are countless discussions on aliens. There were some quality issues for sure. Not just the braising problem. More recently, some had the hole in the lobe drilled in the wrong spot. This of course affects the cam angle and ultimately, the holding power. One of my partners has some older aliens. I feel ok about them. I have taken a few falls on them, too. But, they have had way too many problems in my opinion to be worth risking my life. Climbing has enough risks already. I don't need to be worrying if my cam is going to fall apart.

If your aliens are old, they are likely quite trustworthy. Ironic, I know.

2001??? I am very interested to know about
all the aliens manufactured since then. I have 2
purchased in 2006. Aliens are still manufactured, right?
How can large retailers sell them if they are failing under small loads?

Aliens are a very specialized piece of gear that will work in a placement where nothing else will. Use them for that purpose and they will serve you well. For most climbing it's hard to beat TCU's and C4's.

Aliens are awesome and far superior to other micro-'quad' camming devices on the market.

The Colorado Custom Hardware website describes how to identify the batches that were below strength standards.

http://www.aliencamsbycch.com/recall/index.html

Aliens seem to have a rabid following that I'm not sure they truly deserve. There are some situations where they are great, but as a go-to free climbing piece...no way, especially now that the Master Cams are out. That being said, I have 2 aliens, I have fallen on them numerous times, but i still don't trust them like my BD and Metolius cams.


Moral of the story:

Keep the aliens, you'll still use them, but maybe double up on that size with a more trustworthy cam

People have decked and gotten messed up from these units failing.

Har har har! Wotta laugh.



I can see joking about some stuff, but not this.

Can't live without them nothing comes close, Yeah some units have been recalled make sure you don't have the run that was. But that doesnt make the company bad, all companies have had something recalled at one point or another

Hands down they are in a league of there own, I put 20 footers reapetedly on black last year, No problems and the unit still functions great.

Love them and someone said it best here, they are like sex on the stone, they expand and throb and the fricion and purchase is at one with the crack you stuff it into

I have personally witnesses a alien blow up on one of my buddies (one of the ones that caused the recall). It was sketchy but I still use them because they make a fine product that know one else can quite match. In fact I have a double/triple rack of them I have fallen on most of them and I trust them. But like any product you have to consider the consequences if something happens. Any piece of pro can fail at anytime no matter the manufacturer. I agree with alot the people have put here but JPVallone put it best.

Any placement of pro can fail at any time, but usually due to user error. One need not add manufacturer error to the mix. In most cases no one piece of gear is critical, but that's not always true.


Let's put it this way. If CCH made parachutes, would you still jump with them?

They exist.